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THE SOUTH 



BY MASSAOHtrSETTS JUNIOR. 



'l*t the United States fspouse at ones the cause nf rivil, pnliiical and roli:»ioiis 

liberty in tbii hemisphere; this will be found the Eafest istae to 

go before the world with." 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY SYLVANUS P. SEAMAN, 
No. 160 Washington Stbeet, 

1847. 





A PLEA 



THE SOUTH. 



BY MASSACHUSETTS JUNIOR. 



• Let the U«itii) Statbs espouse at once th» cause of civil, political acd religious liberty in tiio 
hemiepbere : this will t>e found the baszst zssuk to go bzjofj tbb woru) with. " 




BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY SYLVANUS P. SEAMAN, 
1847. 



I' — -'■'' /■/' 



Entored according to the Act of Congrets, in the yesr 184T by 

SYLVANUS P. SEAMAN. 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court in the Eastern District 

of Pennsylvania. 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 



TO TJIE CITIZENS OF THE FREE STATES: 

Freedom is an inborn desire, which exists in the heart of every 
moving creature ; and is exercised in unrestrained indulgence, by- 
all save such as fall under the domination of man. The fishes of the 
sea dart forth, knowing no abridgement of liberty : the birds cleave 
the air with unfettered wing : the insect hums his song of freedom, 
as he pursues his wonted toil: the reptile glides forth at pleasure, 
and returns to his place of rest in security : the beasts of the forests, 
both great and small, roam at large, — all, all in the enjoyment of 
" life, libeHy and the pursuit of happiness,''^ exposed to no other 
harms than those of chance. Of all the brute creation, the beast of 
burden alone is tame and sad. Robbed of his liberty, he forsakes his 
gambols ; the wild grace of his natural gestures gives place to 
cowardice and fear, which mark his servile movements : his eye, no 
longer illumined by gleams of pleasure or of daring, becomes unmean- 
ing and dim ; and, in the intervals of his labor, his enjoyments are 
confined to the alternations of food and rest. — The beast of burden 
is a Slave! and if such be the change, wrought by slavery on him, 
how much greater the violation done to nature, in reducing man to 
the same level ! 

That love of freedom, which in other animals is instinct, becomes 
in man a moral sentiment, involving the happiness of the human 
family. Unconnected with the baser passions, it is the foster mother 
of all the virtues. Coupled with limited authority and directed by 
wisdom, it is the safeguard of tlie rights and the promoter of the in- 
terests of the weak and the powerless. United with ambition, it lures 
the unwary from their home-bred happiness. Directed by avarice, 
it assumes to be a prerogative, and encroaches on the privileges of 



4 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

others. Associated with avarice, ambition and authority combined, 
it becomes the greatest of all tyrants, and demands the surrender of 
rights, on the part of the defenceless, not only to the indulgence of 
their own wills and desires, but to the protection of their own sacred 
persons, Avhich are seized and driven forth to toil, exposed to danger, 
or disposed of for gain M'ith as little regard to their wishes or their 
comforts as the ow^ner feels for the dumb ox, when he goads him at 
the plough, or sells him for a price in the market. 

When Freedom first descended to bless these United States, she 
came in all the dignity of single-mindedness, and she was hailed as 
" lovely and divine." Patriotism took up arms in her defence, and 
the Virtues enlisted in her cause. Justice presented herself with a 
poised balance, in which were "equal rights." Humanity came 
kneeling and in tears, and dedicated herself to the service of the new- 
made sovereign, whose pledge Avas " Liberty for all.'' IMerry took 
the pledge, and flew on wings of love to record it in the bondman's 
heart : he, too, worshipped at the shrine of Freedom, and counted 
upon the day when his fetters should be broken, and himself become 
a citizen in the " Land 0/ the Frez^ But Wealth, Power, Avarice 
and Ambition leagued against the Virtues, while quoting them as 
patron Diesses, and promised eclat to the reign of Freedom. The 
Virtues attempted to speak for themselves, and promised a course of 
righteousness and mercy ; but they were dismissed with, " Go thy 
way for this time, when I have a more convenient season, I will call 
for thee.'''' Thus they, who are the friends of the oppressed, become 
timid from oft-repeated vanquishments, and retiring from their known 
unpopularity ; and the influence of their examples is found to be less 
than the potency of their names. 

Under the reigning powers a government full of licenses was 
formed for us, the fair of skin, and we became emphatically "free!" 
w^hile the rigors of our sable brethren were increased. Wb are truly 
in the enjoyment of all the privileges that can be derived from a 
government ofjuil and impartial \-xw&. We, the citizens, (in contra- 
distinction to slaves,) whether born in this or any other country,* 
are free to enjoy the blessings of Providence, as Avas Adam in the 
garden of Eden. And no people on earth were ever more grateful, 
if a profusion of prayers and thanl^sgivings, a multiplication of 
churches, the educating of ministers, and the sending of missionaries 
to the heathen (! ?) be a proof of gratitude; for in these manifestations 

* Naturalized Foreigners, and even those wlio are not naturalized, are allowed 
to buy and to sell, to work in chains, to whip and to kill men, women and child- 
ren, born and reared within the United States, — sons and daughter's of free 
AMERICA : and that not always because oftlie liue of their skin, for I have seen 
slwuldcrs as delicately fair as those of Albion's own daughters, bared to tlic lash ! 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 



)f riofhteousness, none ever had greater alacrity than we; and yet the 
very pious we, who do all this, deprive millions of our countrymen 
of every social blessing. Their portion of that liberty, which is the 
theme of our orators, and the burden of gratitude with our divines, 
is less than that of the meanest worm that crawles upon the earth. 
We, in the plenitude of our freedom, torture their bodies with labor, 
whips and chains. We crush their minds with mental darkness and 
hopeless servitude. Yet we do not deny that these creatures were 
formed by the hand of God, and belong to the better portion of his 
works. We do not deny that they, like ourselves, are endowed with 
immortal souls ; and that their physical and mental organization is 
replete with the same susceptibilities as those through which we, 
their merciless oppressors, derive all our pleasures, and suffer all our 
pains. The more to subdue them to our service, we have made them 
aliens in the land of their birth : — outlaws, while no crime is laid to 
their charge. Thus innocent of offence, and while with sweat, and 
tears, and blood, they accomplish our bidding, we condemn them by 
our acclamation. — True their skins are darker than our skins, but 
white as the drifted snow compared to our guilt in their enslavement. 

It must be evident to ourselves, and to all the world, that Religion 
and her attributes, Justice and Mercy, are not the tutelar Divinities 
of our country. 

Upon what merit, then, do we lay our fellowship, our security 
anrl our unrivalled prosperity ? 

We must use that word, ' me7-it ' very circumspectly, since its 
application would give us a turn with our wretched bondmen. 

We owe somewhat of our prosperity (security and fellowship we 
have not) to the political sagacity of the fathers of our national inde- 
pendence; but more to the nature of our pursuits, which bring re- 
ciprocal advantages ; and something is gained to the northern portion 
of the union, by the countenance which it affords to enterprisp, 
where the utility is less a matter of doubt, than the fitness of the 
means employed. 

That we, the American people, are upholding a system of tyranny 
the most odious beneath the sun, is true ; and that there is a [iO})ular 
influence, on which to lay this colossus among the sins of nations, is 
equally certain. — This popular, demon influence is avarice, or in- 
satiable DESIRE OF WEALTH, and MEANS are its catarers. Among the 
variety employed by its panders, the most unsightly, the most appal- 
ing, the most heart-sickening is Slavery ! 

Does the South recoil at this uncleanly apparation ? Then let 
her call upon the general government to as-ist in putting away the 
abomination. Does the North exclaim, '• Our nostrils are offended 
with the putrid odors of slavery !" Then let her coffers be emptied 



6 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

of their blood-stained treasures, that the cruel system may be broken 
up, and the moral atmosphere of the Republic be rendered sane and 
healthy. 

In ihe Free States Pride dwells with Avarice, and she prattles 
against slavery. She has a great regard for the reputation of the 
Union, and is free in expressions of disapprobation oft he institution : 
but when Sympathy would touch the public conscience, she thrusts 
Avarice, that thing of adamant, between. She has brought disgrace 
on Sympathy, calling her " Infidel,'' and shutting her out of the 
churches. Symjiathy, however, is of divine origin, and neither 
bows the head nor bends the knee to Pride, but watchful and faithful 
she finds the wa}'- to many a worthy heart. 

A regard for the moral and religious character of the Free States, 
has led to an almost general declaration of anti-slavery principles, 
based on conservative privileges ! 

But we cannot so impose upon the world; and even though we 
might, we should act from a better principle, from a loftier motive 
than the evasion of a world's censure. We should aim to become 
altogether such as we would wish to appear. 

It is not that there is nothing among us to commend, that we are 
suffering contempt and reproach; it is because of our peculiar trans- 
gression, M'hich is known to be full of sins of the blackest dye, that 
our characters are touched with a darkening tinge. It avails us 
very little, among other nations, that we are moral and religious that 
we give to every man, in our own free states his due, so long ;as we 
hold the key to the southern bondman's chains. It avails us nothing 
that we did not forge the links, since it was we who secured the 
rivet. We are not counted the less criminal, because we do not 
lay on the stripes, seeing we take the gain. 

Allow me to course down the public sentiment in regard to slavery, 
since 1774-, even to the present time, and I shall make it appear that 
it was not the fault of the South alone, that slavery was not abolished 
at an early period of our national existence. I shall also endeavour 
to show that the power to arrest an evil, which has become of such 
magnitude as not only to threaten the vital interests of the Southern 
population, but bids fair to involve the whole country in anarchy 
and wars, lies solely and entirely in the Free States. 

Unaided by the General Government, the slaveholders have less 
power to exterminate slavery than have the slaves themselves. Th' re 
is a remedy for the latter, which is gaining in efficacy, while the 
strength of the former is diminishing in an equal ratio. That the 
most eminent statesmen of the South, had a foreboding of this un- 
happy crisis, is evident from the anxiety manifested by them, on the 
subject of slavery, during our struggle for independence ; and from 



A I'LKA Foil THE SOUTH. 7 

their tone of disappointment, when the affairs of the nation became 
finally settled. The resolutions adopted by the first congress, which 
assembled in 177-i, where suliicientiy explicit on the subject of negro 
emancipation to give the general impression that Fkkkdom, as a 
moral and religious principle, and not as a matter of mere convenience, 
was sought by that august assembly. As a prelude to the abolition of 
slavery within the territories, an agreement, which contained the 
following clause, ^^■as signed by the delegates of all the represented 
Colonies : " We will neither import nor purchase any slave import- 
ed after the first day of December next; after which time, we Avill 
wholly discontinue the Slave Trade; and neither be concerned in it 
ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or 
manufactures to those who may be concerned in it." 

The memorable conduct of the, then, noble and proud Virginia, 
the leading member of the Southern confederac}', Avas worthy of all 
admiration. She abolished the slave trade by a solemn act of Legis- 
lation ; and her example was followed by nearly all th(> Statei. 
She united, with fervency, in the Declaration of Independence, 
which promulgated the doctrine of " Equal Rights.'' Without one 
selfish consideration, she yielded her exclusive claim to her Western 
Territory, with no other stipulation than that it should be disposed 
of for the public good, and finally be erected into Republican States. 
Doubtless, Virginia then saw, in perspective, a state of universal 
freedom: and believed that the beating of her own heart was the 
impulse of the entire union. The othf-r states of the South uttered 
not a dissenting voice : — all were ready to approve, and to imitate 
the example of their beloved ^^rginia, believing that the day of 
their deliverance was at hand, not only from the control of a foreign 
country, but from the thraldom of an institution M'hich was contrary 
to the word of God, and to the spirit of justice and humanity. It is 
affecting to read the debates of that day, Avhen men's hearts were 
filled with zeal in the cause of Liberty, and Avarmed with love for 
the oppressed: when freedom was meditated, not for one class, only, 
but lor ALL within the limits of their anticipatc-d jurisdiction. But 
the tenderness of feoling, manili^sted at that jieriod, has nearly become 
extinct in the North by the engrossing influence of an unexampled 
prosperity; and in the South by the cares, ])erplexities, embarassments 
and heart-hardening tendency of slavery- itself. z 

The early design of the Fathers of our Independence evidently^ 
was that the slaves shovdd be set free by legislative enactments in 
the different states, in order that each state might have the entire 
control of its own means and facilities ; but they doubtless supposed 
that the General Government would provide for a'compensation, where 
compensation was needed ; give protection where there might be 



O A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

danger from the lawlessness of newly emancipated multitudes ; and 
to assist in disposing of them, or in training them from a state of vas- 
salage to that of freemen. But the first of these considerations being 
3 delicate subject for southerners to introduce, they waited for pro- 
positions from those less immediately interested, but equally respon- 
sible with themselves. But on this subject, the North, through inad- 
vertence or by design, maintained a profound silence. The great straits 
to which the country had become reduced by the expenses of the 
war, the discontinuance of commerce, and the cessation of industrial 
enterprise generally, — these, or some causes, less excusable, sealed the 
lips of those who should have been the first to advocate the cause of 
a final emancipation, at whatever cost to the country. We would 
preserve our respect for the memory of our ancestors by believing 
that they did intend, when the state of the public finances should 
permit, to have the matter discussed and settled to the satisfaction 
of all concerned. 

From the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, to the adoption 
of the Constitution, in 1789, a considerable change had taken place 
in the public mind, — a change that seldom fails to follow a successful 
enterprise of great magnitude, viz : self-appreciation for self-distrust; 
and disregard for the less fortunate in place of sympathy for their 
sufferings and a due sense of their rights. 

For some time before the Constitution was framed, the southern 
members of Congress had become less sanguine in the belief that the 
liberation of their slaves would become a part of the national reform^ 
unless, indeed, emancipation should be unconditionally precipitated 
upon them, without regard to the sufferings which must inevitably 
follow ; and they began to feel the necessity of securing to themselves 
unlimited control over an incumbrance, from which there appeared 
to be no relief; and to look for emancipation, if indeed it came at 
all, as a gradual work of time, or more probably a successful effort 
for freedom on the part of the slaves themselves. Thus filled with 
anxieties, which should have united them in a bold renunciation of 
slavery, they yielded to the pressing necessity of the times ; and 
instead of a code of laws which should guaranty to every man the 
" Inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," as 
set forth in their Declaration of Independence, they were compelled 
by the spirit of avarice, which had arisen, like the fabled Phoenix, 
from its ashes, to succumb to an instrument, which virtually says : 
The foreign traffic in the bodies of men 7nay cease after such a day 
and date; hut the domestic policy of the Southern States, in regard to 
slavery as it now exists, needs no alteration. 

It it attempted to be proved that the Constitution of the United 
States is decidely anii-slavery, because no such terms as " slave. 



A PLEA FOK, THE SOUTH. y 

slavery, slave trade, slaveholder," or " man-selling," are found in it. 
Nevertheless, it M'as designed as a proslavery instrument, -while the 
blush oi' inconsistency "was spared, and the sting of public conscience 
rendered less acute by substituting, 

Clause I, Sec. IX, Art. I. 
" The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States 
now existing shall think jjroper to admit, shall not be prohibited by 
the congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, 
but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceed- 
ing ten dollars for each person."' 

FOR 
The slave trade may continue in full operation, and shall not be prohibited 
by Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight ; and a 
duty not exceeding ten dollars shall be laid on each slave so imported, for the 
use of the treasury of the United States. 

Again [Clause 3, Sec. II, Art. IV.] 
" No person held to service or labor in one State under the la^vs 
thereof, escaping into an other, shall, in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall 
be delivered up on claim of th( • party to whom such service or labor 
may be due." 

FOR 
No slave held in bondage in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into 
another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, become a free 
man, but he shall be delivered up on claim of his owner. 
Again [Section IV, Art. IV.] 
" The United States shall guaranty to ever}- State in the Union a 
republican form of government, and shall protect them against inva- 
sion : and on application of the Legisla ure or of the Executive 
(when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence." 

FOR 
The United States shall guaranty to every State in the Union a republican 
form of government (nevertheless, the African slaves and their dcsccndcnts sliall 
not be partakers of tlie benefits thereof,) and shall protect them against invasion; 
"and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (in eases of emergency) 
against Slave-insurrection. 

Upon what principle of candor did the Congress of the United 
States, in a code designed for their own internal government, and for 
the regulations of which they were amenable to no poAver ( n earth, 
word every passage, relating to slavery, in so equivocal a manner 1 
Did they believe that they were deceiving the world by so s})allow 
an artifice? or did they suppose that the hateful decrees, thus disguised, 
would K ss conflict with the otherwise liberal tenor ol the Constitution, 
then would they, clothed in the language of common parlance ? 

While contemplating with amazement this new proof of human 
weakness and inconsistency, let us remember that the Constitution 



10 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

was but the work of Man ; and as such, worthy of high commenda- 
tion, its general tone being of the most unexceptional character ; and 
providing, as it does, for its own amendment, it cannot be considered 
sacrilege to take from it, or neutralize those clauses which are an 
offence to every true-hearted American, whenever the National 
Assembly shall agree to have no further use for them. With what 
regret must the spirits of thos'3 otherwise just men, who framed that 
instrument, look down upon the work of their hands ! — With what 
joy would those spirits commune, Avere ihey to behold from above, 
the Constitution of the United States purified from the evidences of 
their cupidity, and left only as a monument of their wisdom ! 

The Constitution, in its' proslavery character, was not adopted 
without many heart-burnings, particularly among the Southern dele- 
gates, and the expression of their feeling became that of disappoint- 
ment and chagrin; for although the Constitution did allow of the 
abolitron of slavery in all the States, it had made no provision for the 
exigencies, which must necessarily attend emancipation in some of 
them; while the government had been careful to relieve itself from 
all responsibility through Article X of the Amendments, which says, 
" The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, 
nor prohibited b}^ it to the States, are reserved to the States respect- 
ively, or to the people." 

Luther Martin, of iMarAdand, left the Convention for framing the 
Constitution before th-" instrument was finally completed. He had 
opposed its adoption, and assigned as his reason for so doing, that it 
" Contained no direct provision against slavery. That while it gave 
the General Government full and absolute power to regulate commerce, 
it had excepted from the exercise of that power the only branch of 
commerce which is unjustifiable in its nature, and contrary to the 
rights of mankind. That we ought rather to prohibit expressly in 
our Constitution, the further importation of slaves, and to authorize 
the General Government, from time to time, to make such regulations 
as should be thought most advantageous for the gradual abolition of 
slavery, and the emancipation of the slaves already in the states." 

In the Ratification Convention of North Carolina, Mr. Iredell, 
(afterwards a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,) 
observed, " When tlie entire abolition of slavery takes place, it will 
be an event which must be pleasing to every generous mind, and 
every friend of human nature," 

Mr. Jefferson in his notes on Virginia, had said, " I think a change 
already perceptible. The spirit of the master is abating, that of the 
slave is rising from the dust ; his condition is being mollified, and 
tlie way, I hope, is preparing, under the auspices of Heaven, for a 
total emancipation ; and that it is disposed in the order of events, to 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 11 

be with the consent of the masters, rather than by their extirpation." 

There is something foreboding in the last sentiment. Would that 
Jefl'erson could have infused his own principles into the hearts of all 
his countrymen. Then would the danger 'ere now have been pass- 
ed, and we, indeed, have become a Free People. 

Said ^V^ishington, " I never, unless some particular circumstance 
should compel uie to it, mean to possess another slave by purchase ; 
it being among my lirst wishes to see some plan adopted by which 
slavery in this country may be abolished by law." 

Again he says, " There is only one efl'ectual mode by which the 
abolition of slavery can be accomplished, and that is by legislative 
authority ; (doubtless having reference to the General liCgislature,) 
and that as far as my sull'rage will go shall not be wanting." 

William Finkney, indignandy said, "Wherefore should we confine 
the edge of censure to our ancestors, or to those from wdiom they 
purchased ? Are we not equally guilty ? They strewed around the 
seeds of slavery, — we cherish and sustain the growtli. Theti intro- 
duced the system, — ice enlarge, invigorate and coniirm it. * * * * * 
By the eternal principles of justice, no master in this state has a right 
to hold his slave a single hour." 

Says Patrick Henry, " We owe it to the purity of our religion to 
show that it is at variance with that law which warrants slavery," 

Says Madison, " It was w'rong to admit into the Constitution, even 
in idea, that there could be property in man." 

Nor did the true patriots of the South desist from their remon- 
strances against everything that favored the cause of slaver}', while 
there was any prospect of its immediate abolition ; nor did they des- 
pair of ultimately attaining their object until convinced that no action 
would be taken by the government f r its accomplishment : — and 
even then the forlorn hope of a final emancipation did not forsake 
them. General Lee, in his " Memoirs of the Revolutionary War," 
indulges in this soliloquy, half encouraging, half reproachful, " The 
Constitution of the United States, adopted lately with so much difli- 
culty, has ciTectually provided against the slave-trade after a few 
years. It is much to be lamented, that having done so much in this 
way, a provision had not been made for the gradual abolition of 
slavery." 

In the course of a debate in the congress of 1 789, (the first under 
the Constitution,) on a petition against the continuance of the slave 
trade, Mr. Parker, of Virginia, remarked with much emphasis, that 
he hoped Congress would do all that lay in their power to restore 
human nature to its inherent privileges, and to wipe ofi' the stigma 
under which America labored. " The inconsistency in our princi- 
ples,"' said he, " should be done away, that we may show by our 



12 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

actions the pure beneficence of the doctrine, which we held out to 
the world in our Declaration of Independence." 

Judge Tucker, of Virginia, in a letter to the General Assembly of 
that State, in 1796, recommending the abolition of slavery, and speak- 
ing of the slaves of Virginia, said, " Should we not, at the time of the 
Revolution, have loosed their chains and broken their fetters ? or if 
the difficulties and d;ingers of such an experiment prohibited the at- 
tempt during the convulsions of a revolution, is it not our duty to em- 
brace the first moment of constitutional health and vigor to eflectuate so 
desirable an object, and to remove from us a stigma, with which our 
enemies will never fail to upbraid, nor our consciences to reproach us?" 

Passages similar to the above might be quoted to fill a volume, all 
pervaded with an air of the same wounded feeling ; but, I have quoted 
enough to show that the South were compelled to feel that no portion 
of their peculiar troubles were to be made lighter by the achievement 
of the National Independence ; but that frequent accessions to their 
already insupportalile load were allowed to be made for a series of 
ensuing years ; and that the avarice of a great number of their fellow 
citizens, would tempt them to the full exercise of the inhuman privi- 
lege. — No wonder that Jefferson should exclaim, in the bitterness of 
his soul, " I tremljle for my country, when I I'eflect that God is just, 
and that his justice cannot sleep forever!" 



The philanthropists of the North took a less desponding view of 
the continuance of slavery and the slave trade, than did their brethern 
of the South. Some of their most eminent men coincided, but with 
less fervor, in Southern sentiments ; but they generally contented 
themselves with the sure prospect of deliverance from slavery with- 
in the limits of the Northern and Middle States, in which the number 
of slaves was comparatively few ; and where the climate was in no- 
wise adapted to their African constitutions, and the soil unproductive 
in those articles which could make slave labor profitable. And 
from the slow natural increase of their colored population, they 
had imbibed the impression that slavery, in the Southern States, where 
the constitution must be soon broken down by excessive labor, would 
be continued only by fresh importations from Africa ; and they plead 
in extenuation of the crime of continuing the slave trade, the necessi- 
ty of giving employment to their merchantmen,* and of increasing 

* It has been asserted that the slave trade was conduct od witli unparallrled vifror between 
the yfars of 17S9 and 1808, and that too in Northern vessels, manned by Northern seamen. 
At the same time, sermons were preached, and addresses pnt foith, denonncin;: slavery and 
the slave trade ; and public appeals to Heaven in behalf of the oppre?scd bondmen were of 
daily occurrence. 

The voice of prayer for the liberation ol tlie slave must have contrasted strangely wiih- 
Uie " Yo-hcaveoh !" of the departing slave ship. 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 13 

the revenue of their deeply embarrassed country. They were in- 
fatuated with the notion that the institution of slavery, if confined to 
the Eree States, in which it then existed, would, when no longer re- 
plenished from abroad, become extinct, without expense or detriment 
to any portion of the country. But it is most probable that they did 
not look, witli a great degree of solicitude, beyond the expiration of 
the term limited to tho slave trade ; and that they contemplated the 
'•forever-after" as a season of self approbation, and of political and 
domestic morality and justice. 

Our revolutionary fathers, who were a set of worthy, and, to a 
great extent, an intellectual class of men, had, like some of us, their 
descendants, an easier way of arriving at a conclusion than that 
of examining the premises, and never dreamed of the untoward con- 
sequences which must natundly grow out of a continu tnce of the 
slave trade, which was transplanting, from Africa, the elements of 
strife into a cHmate, soil and situation favorable to their growth. 
The condition of slavery has more than once been found favorable 
to the natural increase of the enslaved. In the first chapter of Ex- 
odoLis we find an account of a pecjple demanding release from a 
bondage, which this of America seems destined to surpass, both in 
the numbers of the enslaved, and in the atrocity of the system ; yel 
the similarity of the two cos3s are, in some respects, too obvious to 
escape a general notice. 

It has been said that the Nnlional Legislature, by continumg tne 
slave trade, lured the slaveholders to invest property in men. The 
truth of this assertion is self-evident, and the consequences to the 
BJave holders are precisely such as might have been expected to men, 
who were so Hir fijrgetful oftheir own dignity, as to bend the shoulder 
and become burden-bearers of a political sin. 



Wc will now turn with feelings of admiration to " the times 
THAT TRIED men's SOULS." Our immediate and worthy ancestors, 
filled with a lively sense of the injustice of the mother country in 
withholding from them certain privileges, which they considered due 
to them as citizens and as men, and in laying upon them burdens 
which could not be submitted to without degradation ; and realizing 
that their own isolation, and the hardships endured by their fore- 
fathers, the early pioneers of a wilderness, entitled them to a higher 
consideration than that of vassals to a foreign crown, did, aOer much 
deliberation, but without the aid, without the countenance of a single 
nation upon earth, set about the work of a political revolution : — 
not from motives of retaliation, not Horn an overweening spirit ; but 
under a sense of thedefil-rence due to their enterprise and their mng- 

2 



14 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

namity, and that they might leave to iheir children an inheritance 
of free institutions and a liberal policy of government, did they en- 
gage in a struggle, both dangerous and doubtful. 

There was no hypocricy in their Declaration of Independence! 
It was a warm ebulilion from the hearts of men, desirous of enjoy- 
ing and of diffusing the blessings of liberty, and a spirit of enthusiasm 
was kindled from Maine to Georgia. — Even the poor slaves, believ- 
ing that they, too, were to be benefitted by the emancipation of the 
colonies from the governmsMit, under the sanction of which they had 
been deprived of their liberty, and reduced to the anomalous state of 
speaking chattels, were true to the cause of the country (alas I not 
theirs,) and to the interests of their masters. Impressed with th« 
idea that they were held in bondage through British power and in- 
fluence, they viewed the armies of Britain as the worst of enemies ; 
otherwise they might have turned the scale of the revolution: but no, 
their confidence was full and entire in the justness of the cause, 
never doubting for a moment that their own personal freedom de- 
pended on the success of the American arms. With a self devotion 
worthy of eternal consideration, they hung upon the fortunes of their 
masters, whose hearts were warmed towards them ; and whose se- 
cret vows for their restoration to the rights of humanity are recorded 
in that Book, which will be opened when we are all called upon to 
settle our final accounts. 

The Preamble to the Abolition Act of Pennsylvania, in 1780, shows, 
with more or less intensity, the state of the public mind in regard to 
the slave portion of the suffering community. It says, " W'eaned 
by a long course of experience from those narrow predjudices and 
partialities, which we had imbibed, we find our hearts enlarged with 
kindness and benevolence towards men of all conditions and nations; 
and we conceive ourselves to be, at this particular period, called 
upon, in an extraordinary manner by the blessings we have received, 
(o manifest the sincerity of our professions, and to give substantial 
proof of our gratitude." These generous, just, and humane senti- 
ments, were fostered in every part of the country ; but nowhere 
with more sincerity and warmth than in the now reckless, and Hea- 
ven-defying South. 

The WAK ended, the prospects of America brightened. Prosper- 
ity had crowned their efforts, — not in the cause of Freedom, but in 
incontrovertible independfnce of foreign control ; and that dependence 
on Divine Providence, which had sustained the public mind during 
the struggles of the revolution, and which never fails to open the 
eyes of the understanding to the just claims of others, was uow ex- 
changed for worldly wisdom and self-reliance. 

The pecuniary embarrasments of the country demanded immediate 



A PLEA FOR TIIK SOUTH. 15 

attention, and the low state of the public financrs, the clamor of 
creditors, and the dilapidated state into which every branch of com- 
merce and home industry had fallen, withdrew a portion of the public 
mind fmin the cause of humanity to the cause of mammon. The 
IndiipL'nilence of the Nation achieved, the work of maintainfince must 
begin. First, provision must be made for the liquidation of the Na- 
tional debt, and for the increasing expenses of the new oovenment. 
Next the general spirit of enterprise must be gratified in the multipli-. 
cation of private resources; and on a cool consideration of expedien- 
cy, it was thought justifiable to abriilge the " rights" of some men 
♦' to liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It was not evi'U neces- 
sary to say who should be the vicliii ! — But where could the sacri- 
fice most advantageously, and with the least show of injustic? be 
made? — Not in the North, where the piety of our forefathers was 
left as a legacy, in trust, for the benefit of their children. Not in thfi 
Middle States, where the descendents ofPenn and Stuyvcsant held 
to the doctrine that -'Justice to man was a duty to God." — But the 
South! aye, the South, with a genial climate, a fertile soil, and a good- 
ly number ofoperatives, inured to unrequited labor. — And the South- 
ern planters, slave-holders by profession, of course, not under tht^ 
influence of religion and morality : — surely, it is their duty to ac- 
quiesce in so convenient a measure for the general benefit. — And 
then it is but for a little while, — and domestic slavery die ovt, leav- 
ing them nothing to do but to repent of their sins and enjoy the bless- 
ings of a Free Governmejvt. 

Well, the South, wholly aware of the consequences, disregarded 
the counsel of her wise men, and looking only to the prospect of im- 
mediate and large gains, became reconciled to the unnamed, but 
perfectly understood arrangement ; and thus compromised her por- 
tion of her country's birthright, — free institutions, for the unsavory 
pottage of slavery ; since which time, it has been in vain for her, 
when contemplating the prosperity of the North, that she has cried 
to God, " Bless me, even me also, O ! my Father." 

From the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the Southern 
feeling br came changed towards the North. The warm and cordial 
love with which her citizens had been wont to regard their North- 
ern neighbors, was now changed to coldness and distrust. They 
became petulant and overbearing ; insensible to pity, and regardless 
of the opinions of the world ; and their poor, helpless slaves, who 
had looked forward to a brighter day, were made the victims of their 
ire; and inconsistency of principle was never carried to a greater 
length than in their impatience of contradiction and their defiance 
of human control, compared with their treatment of their slaves, of 
whose privileges the following extracts from the laws of the several 



16 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

States will give an idea that shonld be sufficient to call forth, not 
only the indignation of an outraged humanity, but immediate and 
effectual measures for their relief. 

Southei'ii Definition of the term " Slave.^^ 

" A Slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he be- 
longs. The master may sell him, dispose of his [lerson, his indus- 
try and his labor. He can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire 
anything that does not belong to his master." — Civil Code of 
Louisiana. 

The codes of the other States defaie the word " slave" in a similar 
manner. Thus under covert of Article X. of the Amendments of the 
Constitution of the American Republic, a confederation that has turned 
mountains of powder into smoke, in celebrating the anniversaries of 
its independence, and wasted volumes of breath in bombast on ac- 
count of its freedom, laws are in force, by which a man of certain 
caste, may take his less fortunate neighbour and reduce him to the 
condition described in the above definition of the word" slave." 
Laws of the Slave States. 

" Slaves shall always be reputed and considered as real estate, and 
shall be, as such, subjected to be mortgaged, according to the rules 
prescribed by law ; and they shall be seized and sold as real estate." 
— Law of Louisiana. 

" Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken and reputed, in law, to be 
chattels personal in the hands of their owners and possessors, and 
their executors, administrators and assigns, to all intents, con- 
•TRrcTioNS, AND PURPOSES WHATEVER." — Luto ofSovth Carolina' 

" In the trial of slaves, the Sheriff chooses the Court, which must 
consist of three Justices, and twelve slaveholders, to serve as 
jurors." — Law of Tennessee. 

" Any emancipated slave remaining in the State more than a 
year, may be sold by the Overseers of the Poor, for the benefit of 
the " Literary Fund." " Any slave or free colored person, found 
at any school for teaching reading or writing, by day or by night, 
may be whipped at the discretion of a Justice, not exceeding twenty 
lashes," — Lntvs of Virginia. 

" Penalty for any slave, or free colored person exercising the func- 
tions of a minister of the gospel, thirty-nine lashes." " Penalty 
for teaching a slave to read, imprisonment for one year." " Every 
negro or mulatto, found in the State, not able to show himself entitled 
to freedom, may be sold as a slave." — Laws of Mississippi. 

" For attempting to teach any free colored person or slave to 
spell, read or write, a fine of not less than two bundred and fifty, 
nor more than five hundred dollars." — Law of Alabama. 

" Any person who sees more than seven slaves without a white 



A PLEA FOK THE SOUTU. 



17 



person, in a high road, may whip each slave twenty lashes." 
•' Every colored person is presumed to be a slave unless he can 
prove himself free." — Lutes of Georgia. 

'• Every colored person is presumed to he a slave wilcss he can 
prove himself free.'' — In virtue of this law, whicli prevails iri all 
the slave States, colored persons, and sometimes, perhaps, dark 
complexioned white persons, who cannot give immediate and satis- 
factory references, arc incarcerated in the public jails, and bid to 
prove that they are free men. Now, it is impossible for them, locked up 
in jails, to procure evidence of their freedom. So they are kept 
awhile, and then sold to pay their jail fees, which the Marshal 
and Jailor can fix as high as they please ; and although they are 
nominally sold for a time to pay the debt thus incurred, no further 
interest is taken in them, and they are generally resold before the ex- 
piration of the term of their service, and thas become slaves for 
life. 

I have not learned that there are any laws which annul the mar- 
riage covenant of slaves, I therefore quote Judge Matthews of Lou- 
siana, as authority for the general usage. " With the consent of 
their masters, slaves may marry, and their moral power to agree 
to such or connection as that of marriage cannot be doubted, but 
whilst in a state of slavery, it cannot produce any civil effect, be- 
cause the slaves are deprived of all civil rights." — Martin's Rep. 
VI., ?50. 

It would be easy to give examples of the " tender mercies" of the 
slaveholders, under sanction of such laws as the above, but having 
seen, in too many instances, the unwillingness and disgust, with 
which the free community listen to details of the sufferings of the 
slaves, I have hope of better success from an appeal to their under- 
standing than from an attack upon their passions. Yet they will 
allow me in the following little incident, to touch a sympathy, which, 
although implanted in youth, reserves its full fruition for the close of 
life. 

I once remained for a few weeks at a hotel in the State of Ten- 
nessee. Being in delicate health, my intercourse with the familv 
came to bo on the most familiar terms ; and a room was assigned 
me in the immediate vicinity of the nursery, of which an aged black 
woman seemed to be the superintendant. She was usually sad, and 
peculiar from a habit of extempore singing. Late in the night, [ 
could hear her rocking to and fro, and uttering her piteous plaint, 
now in the tone of song, now in the voice of prayer, and often with 
sighs and sobs. 

The nightly repetition of this mournful serenade at last induced 
me to ask the mistress the cause of the grief of her aged slave ; and 

2* 



18 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

1 learned that she had belonged to a planter in Virginia, the father 
of her present lady. Early in life she married, or took, without 
ceremony, as her husband, a worthy fellow-slave, with whom she 
cohabited until the death of her master; when, with the other prop- 
erty, the slaves were divided among the heirs of the estate, she fal- 
ling to her present owner, and her husband to another branch of the 
family. She had been a valuable and trusty servant, and now, not- 
withstanding her age and infirmities, was a faithful nurse. " But 
why does she mourn so?" I asked. " Oh," said her mistress, " it 
is because she cannot see her husband. He was old and lame, and 
it did not belong to us to take care of him, and so he was left. But 
she is of use to me, and I indulge her in all her ways ; yet it does 
seem that she will not try to be happy — she is so unreasonable I" 
I thought otherwise. 

With permission, I afterwards became a visitant of the nursery, and 
sometimes attempted to comfort the poor old negress, whom I often 
found singing. •' Oh ! Tazzo, oldy man, no see um Suk-e-e ! Ah ! 
Tazzo, goody man, too old to work-e-e I Who comb him wooly 
head? Who wash um foot-c-e ? Who cook um hnmin-e-e ? Who mend 
um clothes-e-e ?" " Tell me, aunty," said I, " who you are singing 
about ?" " Oh dear," said slie, " it is my poor ole husband, my 
poor ole n-jan !" and then she wailed and sang, " Poor Tazzo, oldy 
man, left all alone-e-e !" I enquired if she had left no children to 
console him? "No," she replied, in a voice so sharp that I feared 
she was about to strike me, " Ole massa sole um all, dat's what he 
raise um for — (rocks and sings, with tears fast falling ) " Who care 
for chillun now ?" — All gone-e ! gone-e I" This poor creature had 
given up her children,without knowing the pleasures of a mother's love. 
She had never considered them as her own, nor suffered her affections 
to twine about them. But her poor husband, with whom she had 
travelled through a long life of servitude, had become the sole ob- 
ject of her solicitude ; and she declared to me, that she would not 
live, if they did not let her go home, and " comfort de poor ole 
man," 

There is a mutual kindness and childlike love between two aged 
people under the ordinary circumstances of husband and wife : but 
with the slaves, in the unusual privileges of growing old together, 
their youthful tenderness ripens into an all-absorbing devotion. 
Negroes are naturally affectionate creatures, and in advanced age 
kindness predominates over all other feelings, even towards those 
who have treated them roughly. 

Whenever I think of that poor old negress, her husband, lame 
and lonely, is also present to my view. They will see each other 
DO more, on earth ; but may they again be united in that worlds 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 19 

where the fetters of bondage are unknown ; and where they nriay 
realize for their offspring that regard, which the base traffic in hu- 
man flesh has denied them here. 



Avarice had become the ruling passion of the slaveholders, while 
prodigality marked all their steps. The former exacted labor to the 
uttermost extremity of the slaves, while the latter allowed neither 
means for their comfort, nor a provision to be made for their eman- 
cipation. Prodigious were the sums paid into Southern coffers for 
the product of slave labor, but only to be extracted therefrom by 
Northern enterprise. The merchants of the Northern and Middle 
States made the most valuable importations for the Southern market, 
from which the mechanic, the artisan, and the manufacturer, also 
realized a premium on the profits of their labor. It was thus that 
the slave-trodden soil of the South became the Ophir of the Republic. 

In consideration of the vast benefits to the Free States arising 
from the extravagant expenditures of the slaveholders, a spirit of 
forbearance was manifested toward them under some very trying 
exactions and assumptions of control in the affairs of the General 
Government, until the South, having become the political pet of the 
Union, found herself not only able to coerce the North into the most 
eccentric public measures, but regaled without stint on the loaves 
and fishes of oflice. True, the Northern office seekers complained, 
and the Northern politician often found himself brow-beaten ; but it 
is no easy matter to recover an influence, once compromised, and so 
the North now finds it ; but unwilling to come to an open rupture, 
she wisely maintains a spirit of forbearance, which the South, heed- 
less of the consequences to herself, seems trying to provoke by con- 
stant violations of the compact which should equalize the privileges 
of the citizens of the diirerent Slates. 

I do not remark upon this inequality of power and privileges, 
from feelings of envy, or by way of crimination, for we cannot be 
jealous of the privileges of so unfortunate a people ; nor should we 
indulge in censure upon that portion of their conduct which is their 
only relief among unhappy alternatives. But it is well to lay bare 
the cause of the preferences conceded to the South in all public 
concerns of honor or profit. I once asked of a Northerri Represen- 
tative the question of their right to so great a monopoly? His an- 
swer was, '* They will carve for themselves, therefore it is not 
Btrange that they should take the lion's share." " But, by whose 
grant did the ' will' become authority to make these unequal divi- 
ions ?" •' By grant of their necessities, and in virtue of their own 
qualifications," he replied, " and too much has been said, and too 



20 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 



many wrong impressions given concerning Southern usurpation of 
political power: — for why should we, of the North, complain, after 
having given them a monopoly of office for a monopoly of trade, the 
latter being worth about 1400 per cent per annum more than the 
former ; and while we have been studying the leger, the slaveholders 
have become adepts in the science of government : — so much so that 
their superior qualifications as statesmen, are not doubted even by 
their enemies." I hinted to him that I thought he must have been 
led into a very unwilling appreciation of the talents of men who 
were exercising a dictatorial supervision over the interests of the 
North, while they offered rewards for the heads of any, who might 
dare to speak against their own " Peculiar Institutions" " True," 
said he, " we have allowed them to gain an eminence of power and 
authority, against which it is treason to speak; while we are called 
upon with an authority, truly ludicrous, to bend the knee and buckle 
on the armor to strenifthen their position!" 

This gentleman betrayed a fair sample of the fluctuation of North- 
ern feeling towards the Southerners, — one moment complaining of 
their selfishness, the next admitting all their claims ; then disgust at 
their usurpation of authority and disregard of courtesy is followed 
by admiration of their talents, and a plea for their arrogance; while the 
concluding reflection are not always such as to give a man a favor- 
able opinion of his own dignity, or of his social and political con- 
sequence. 



The internal government of the Southern portion of this self- 
styled republic, is a slave-made olligarchy, depending for support, 
on unrequited vassal labor ; and for protection on the resources of 
the General Government, for the appropriation of which the Consti- 
tution thereof has made ample provision. Their manner of living 
is peculiar to that of tyrants in general, profuse and limited only by 
their means. Their moral principles are a compound of whatever 
we have been taught to admire in the chivalrous traits arising from 
the feudal system, with too much of what even our perverted natures 
condemn in the open injustice of a Cortez and a Pizzaro, and in the 
secret cruelties of the Spanish Inquisition: and their moral conduct 
is the genuine offspring of their principles. 

It is not true, as mani/ suppose, that there is no sympathy in the 
breast of the master for his poor suffering slave. It is not true, as 
some affirm, that ihey are generally treated with kindness, and are 
content with their condition. Sympathy, there is indeed ; and Pity, 
that God-like child of Heaven ; and self-reproach, that sting of 
wounded conscience : and burning shame, that attendant on a re- 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. JM 

putation soiled. These would soflen the rigors of the bondman's 
lot, did not interest and peismal safety forbid. Pity the condition 
of the slave; withhold the whip from his trembling limbs; let him 
feel your Sympathy, and be comforted by your generosity, (only 
retaining him as a chattel slave,) and he assumes the man ! Free- 
dom starts up b( fore him, with only you between : it is enticing and 
lovelv ; he is strengthened by your kindness to make an effort for 
the prize : — he daris through your vitals, and shouts the pecan of 
Liueuty! 

It requires a heavy load of oppression to reconcile a man to the 
loss of his personal freedom, and to the rule of another over the des- 
tinies of his wife and children, of whom the God of nature has ap- 
pointed him the rightful protector and defender: deep must be the 
bruises in his flesh ; crushed must be his spirit, 'ere he can be made 
to labor on, without an effort for their emancipation and his own. 

Cruelty is not, as has been represented, the pas'ime of the slave- 
holder ; it is his policy of insurance for the diligence and non-resist- 
ance of his slave. -And how does that government stand in the 

eight of Almighty God ? — In view of his wondering angels? — In the 
esteem ol" more liberal nations? — in the balance of common justice? 
— in the account of Humanity ? — and in the regards of Decency ? — 
■which throws around an institution, requiring for its safety such an 
amount of barbarity, the protecting arms of its power ! — or wiiliholds 
the means to purchase, if purchase be necessary, the freedom and 
disenthralment of a portion of its citizens, suffering cruelties, to which 
no parallel can be found in the records of the world I 

The slaveholders do not, as they would have it believed, live with- 
out fear, and revel in security. Retribution haunts them by day ; 
stalks through their vigils at night, and disquiets their dreams. Their 
trials are as far beyond the power of our affluent Northern citizens 
to conceive, as are the sufferings of the brutalized, unpaid slave be- 
yond the comprehension of the free laborer, who toils through the 
day, or only until he is weary, then, fearless of blame, returns to 
the covert of his domestic security, and shares the product of his 
labor with his wife, whom the laws allow him to protect, and the 
children, who are not liable to be snatched from his care by other 
foes than death. 

As if to punish the injustice of robbing men of their liberty, every 
addition to that source of gain augments ihe dangers to be feared 
from rebellion. The slaves of the United States have already be- 
come too numerous, and too well instructed in their rights to be 
contemplated without dread. Their frequent attempts at insurrection, 
although unsuccessful, have furnished them with a great amount of 
general knowledge, in relation to the resources, the apprehensions 



S'S 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 



and the constant watchfulness of their enemies. They have become 
convinced of the impossibility of rising en masse and striking a de- 
cisive blow. They know that a warfare must ensue, in which they 
will sometimes be vanquished, and sometimes victorious. They are 
aware that enemies may be found appoaching them as friends, and 
that traitors will not be wanting of their own color. The have be- 
come cautious in their communications with strangers ; yet they have 
facilities for obtaining information, and for private discussions, of 
which no vigilance is able to deprive them. Many, even on the 
plantations, can both read and write ; but how they have become 
possessed of those acquirements is a marvel to all but themselves. 
Perhaps the short journeys, which they contrive to make in the 
night-tirne, arc to places where knowledge lies concealed. The hour 
of darkness is their time to be abroad. If they escape detection and 
punishment it is well ; if otherwise they are not deterred, since no 
infliction can subdue the propensity, and so adroit are they in their 
movements, that the keenest eye cannot always determine their 
identity. I have, from my window, seen them glide through the 
gardens and porticos, when the stillness of the night should have 
revealed the dropping of the dew, and not the slightest sound be 
heard ; and no evidence of their presence given, save the glimpse 
of some darksome apparition. To timorous and superstitious persons, 
they often give cause of alarm, their presence being suspected in the 
motion of every leaf, and their appearance ominous of evil. Their 
ear is quick, their sight keen, their tread light, and their movements 
deceptive. The slightest stir of an enemy is instantly felt, and they 
vanish from sight like spectral illusions. 

However much the feeling may attempt concealment, the slaves 
are objects of terror to all, but more especially so to women and 
children. The desperate resolves, which cause men to go armed; 
nerve them with a constant readiness to meet danger ; and like 
soldiers prepared for battle in defence of all that is dear, they never 
suffer their courage to flinch, nor their self-command to be subdued 
by apprehensions. It is only when the mind and the body, wearied 
alike, would sink into rnpose, that fitful dreams bring tremors to the 
heart and moisture to the brow. 'T is then the wife, and child are 
grasped, with trembling hand, — and God is praised ! 

Who, that has compassion, would be a tyrant and a terror to his 
fellow-men ? — Who, that hns an earthly tie, can feel secure, while 
revenge, deep, fierce and foul, burns in the hearts of his own house- 
hold slaves? 

Children love their nurses, who slily tell them tales of insurrec- 
tions, and thus they learn to fear them. Ladies become attached to 
faithful servants ; but knowing the injuries sustained by the race to 



▲ PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 23 

which they belong, confidence gives place to distrust, and reliance to 
dread. Men have slaves who would die in their defence against a 
stranger, but who would be the first to slay them were their own 
personal freedom to be the reward. 

I have noticed that very old negroes Avere averse to insurrection- 
ary movements, since age brings to them a season of indulgence and 
a certainty of support. And here, to the credit of the slaveholder, 
be it spoken, that the aged slaves are kindly cared for. True, thia 
kindness conies too late to confer any lasting good ; but it comes 
when hope and expectation have no longer a future on earth ; and 
the present, being all that is left of time, receives kindness with that 
full meanire of enjoyment, which lends to the garrulity of age the 
interest of prattling infancy ; a pleasing loquacity and buoyancy of 
spirit being as sure indications of kind usage in extreme age as in 
early childhood. It has often been amusing to me to hear an old, 
gre}' -headed negro (rejoicing in the privilege,) scold " massa " and 
" missus,'' while "massa" and " missus" would only wink and smile, 
or give some trifle by way of peace offering. 

I have sometimes thought that the situation of those superannuated 
slaves, contrasted favorably Avith the condition of many aged fathers 
and mothers of fairer complexion, who sit in melancholy stupor by 
the firesides of their own sons and dau2;hters. 



The siaful presumption of our government in retaining men a?? 
chattels, has recoiled upon the immediate agents in a way to involve 
them in a variety of embarrasments, from which it is impossible for 
them to be extricated but by an entire change, which it is the duty 
of said government to assist them in makiu'^ in a portion of their 
domestic economy. Were every other obstacle in the way of eman- 
cipation removed, the pecuniaiy entanglements of the South are so 
connected with slavery that the slaveholders have not the ri<^ht to 
abolish it at will. The practice of raising money b}^ mortgage on 
slaves has raised an almost insurmountable impediment to their libera- 
tion, urilcss a considerable compensation is made to their owners ; 
for while under mortgage, they are not at the disposal of those, in 
whose possession they are found, except it be to ma'<e sale of them, 
in order to meet their own liabilities. I have known plantations with 
every slave upon them to be under mortgage at the same time. In 
cases like these, what arc the home creditors, generally banks, to do '< 
and what are the merchants to do, who supply the slaveholders with 
goods, on one, two. three, and four year's credit, to be paid, at last, 
out of the avails of slave labor ? and what are our Northern merch- 
ants to do, who furnish those goods on credit. 



24 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

In a statement, which I have lately examined of the commercial 
relations between the North and the South, I find the following item, 
under date of ISM. " The loss since 1815, which the North has 
sustained in commercial intercourse with the South, or slaveholding 
States, cannot be less than lifteen millions a year. New York city 
has, this day, had debts against Southern traders to the amount of 
one hundred millions of dollars ; debts contracted since the close of 
the last war. They have also ten millions more in mortgages ojc 

SLAVES !" 

If the above statistics be correct, which I doubt not, what must be 
the entire amount due from the South to the North at this time, all 
of which must become " bad debts," in case of unaided emancipa- 
tion ! 

The merchants are among the most wealthy and influential citi- 
zens of the Free States ; but they are tenacious of their riijhts, as 
merchants are every where, and would bear the loss of their just 
dues, together with the falling off of trade, which must follow the 
sudden annihilation of Southern capital, with a verj^U grace. The 
carriage and piano-forte manufacturers and dealers would have equal 
cause of complaint. These classes of citizens, Vv^ith some others, feel- 
ing their confidence abused and their interests suiFering, would load 
the South with everlasting reproach ; and the Southern character 
would be liable to suffer more from the charge of defalcation than it 
now does from that of slaveholding. 

But pecuniary embarrasments alone being only a matter of interest 
against liberty and life, would be an insufhcient motive for the con- 
tinuance of slavery, whoever might be sufferers in consequence 
of emancipation. There are other reasons, which leave the States 
no longer the possibility of disencumbering themselves of the insti- 
tution, without adding to the present misery and sufferings of their 
colored as well as of their white population ; and no State Legisla- 
ture can be so mad as to attempt an emancipation, under present 
circumstances, without the aid and co-operation of the General Gov- 
ernment. Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee might 
emancipate themselves by practising a rnse, that of removing and 
selling their able-bodied slaves, and giving freedom to the rest. But 
it would be better for the Administration to lake charge of the whole, 
and make such disposition of them as would be for their own benefit 
and for the general peace and comfort of these United States, than 
that any portion thereof should be driven to so infamous an ex- 
pedient as the one above named. Yet it has been surmised that this 
is the purpose, and the object for which so many slaves are annually 
sold and carried to the more South-Western States while others are 
taken by their owners to stock new plantations in Missouri, Arkan- 



A PLEA FOR TlfE SOUTH. 25 

«as, and Texas ; all with the intent of leaving the original States in 
a condition to abolish slavery. Having traveled much in those 
States for the last few years, I have seen nothing to warrant me in 
saying that such is the case. Those States have become poor in con- 
sequence of their connection with slavery, and have finally taken to 
raising slaves for the market, as a remedy against utter destitution; 
while the dangers to be apprehended from their increasing numbers, 
and the diminishing means which the soil aflbrds for their support, 
amount to a strong necessity for their dispersion. 

It has not been so much to keep the slave portion of the Union in 
the political ascendancy, as to furnish markets and a wider field for 
the sLive population, that new slave States have been formed. 
Young and enterprising men find it to their advantoge to migrate, 
taking with them such negroes as may fall to their share : — now 
were not the slaves admitted as slaves into these States, the young 
men would not migrate at all. And here they have been inexcusably 
injudicious, for the admission of republican States, in the mild cli- 
mate of the south-west, should have afforded them an opportunity of 
making settlements with all their colored laborers as free men, in 
whicli case they would have surrounded themselves with friends in- 
stead of enemies, and have laid a foundation for prosperity and peace 
rather than for a new series of desolations and disquiets. But here, 
again, the slaveholders are reaping the bitter fruits oi diiving menus 
cattle. 

It is the opinion of the abolitionists that the slaves should be set 
free, at all events ; and so they should ; but it is desirable that their 
freedom should be brought about in such a manner as to make their 
condition better and not Avorse. Still the cry is, " set them free, at 
once ; and let them go away, or stay where they now are, as they 
like." 

The free negroes and mulattoes, (of which there are several hun- 
dred thousand in those parts of the Southern States, where they are 
permitted to remain) never choose to make excursions, notwithstand- 
ing the more than willingness of their governments that they should 
leave and settle themselves elsewhere. 

As an a])ology for the apparent lack of enterprise on the part of 
the free blacks, it must be kept in mind that while the migrating In- 
dians have tracts of land assigned them, together with the assistance 
and protection of the General Government ; and that foreign emi- 
grants, who come prepared to buy for themselves, are also protected 
by the Government, no protection is afforded to the colored man, 
who, having been kidnapped and brought here, an unwilling slave, 
should of all men be the first entitled to our consideration and care. 

The negroes in the older slave States are now maintained rather 
3 



26 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

as valuable property than as profitable servants. Were they to be 
emancipated, not one half of them would find employment where 
they now are ; and should they be inclined to seek their fortunes 
elsewhere, to what part of the country could they go 1 — who would 
receive them ? If the John Randolph negroes were not allowed to 
occupy certain lands, purchased for them in the State of Ohio, but 
were driven away, at the point of the bayonet, how would it be 
with others, whom necessity should compel to spread themselves in 
swarms over the country in search of immediate subsistence 1 Their 
present owners, in giving them up, could not have the means of pro- 
viding for them in their wanderings afterwards. The case of Ran- 
dolph was a peculiar one. He was wealthy and unembarrassed : had 
he been involved to half the amount of his estate and the negroes 
upon it, those poor creatures must have been sold under the hammer, 
however good his disposition might have been to make them free. 
We here see that the si ive is not independent of the fortunes of his 
owner. We also learn from the experience of those liberated slaves, 
that the coloured man must not look to the non-slaveholding States 
for comfortable quarters. 

It is certain that in case of emancipation, the negroes of the south, 
or a part of them must be removed, in order to obtain employment 
whereby they can live ; and the free States would readily discover 
that they could have no use for them, having accustomed themselves 
to the services ol the Irish and Germans, to whom they are partial ; 
and the two classes, foreigners and negroes, do not harmonize in this 
country. Foreigners leave their tender sympathies for the slave be- 
hind them when they cross the Atlantic. Safely landed on our 
shores, and annointed with the unction of naturalization, they take 
up the common prejudice against the people of colour, to whom they 
are a continual source of disquiet and discomfort ; although these last 
are among the most peaceable and inoffensive inhabitants of our 
towns and cities, where they are not always protected in their rights, 
nor treated with that consideration which is due to their moral worth. 

In a conversation with a southern gentleman on the subject of 
northern prejudice against color, he maintained that color, in the 
north, was a greater barrier in the way of equal rights and privi- 
leges, than was that of caste in the south ; " for," said he, " the lat- 
ter being a matter of policy might be adjusted. With us, it is the 
inferior condition of the man, and not the shade of his complexion 
that debars him from the privileges of citizenship. But in the fret 
or less liberal States, the objection lies in the hue of the skin, for 
which there is no remedy ; and the bugbear of infancy is not likely 
to become the associate of manhood." 

I remarked, 'your own free colored people have no more privi- 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 27 

leges than ours,' He replied, "among us, the admission of free co- 
lored men to the privileges of citizenship, would be incompatible 
with our present institutions. With you, there is no such necessity 
as that of depriving the colored portion of your population of rights, 
which are unhesitatingly granted to the lower orders of Irish and 
Dutch, their inferiors both in intellect and in morality, as the Euro- 
pean Schools can testify." "I remember," continued he, "that 
when I was a student at Harvard University, the sight of a colored 
man ^^•as refreshing to me, and I wanted to shake hands with every 
one I met ; but boy as I was, I foolishly gave way to an appearance 
of the prejudices of those with whom I was associated ; and I can 
never, until this day, think of it without condemning my own want 
of independence, for I often passed Avith scorn, sensible and gentle- 
manly black fellows, to whom I should have cordially given my 
hand in any metropolis of the southern States." 

We then shifted the subject and he jocosely enquired " if I had yet 
discovered a retreat for the slaves, in case of a sudden and over- 
whelming abolition movement ?" I replied, ' let them go wherever 
they will ; it is a free country, — at least the foreigners say so, 
when they come among us.' "Ah I" said he, " foreigners are re- 
ceived with open arms, but I do verily believe that should our poor, 
honest, harmless negroes be emancipated, such of them as might have 
the temerity to seek for shelter or employment on the north of Ma- 
son and Dixon's line, would m^'et Avith a reception similar to that 
which befel certain inhabitants of London, who during the plague of 
1625, fled to the country for safety, and were met by the country 
people, who drove them back with j)itchforks, firebrands, and billets 
of wood.'' 

He finally concluded that Texas was about to drop very oppor- 
tunely into the Union; " for," said he, " it is a growing concern, and 
will soon extend to the Pacific Ocean." I replied, that ' I had no 
objection to an addition to the family of States, provided the new- 
comers brought with them none but republican principles ; and that 
Texas with New Mexico and Upper Caliibrnia in her train, should 
be particularly welcome, if they came in a just and an honorable 
manner, and with the intention of planting colonies oi fre« colored 
people on their western borders.' 



The inhabitants of the slave States are great suflerers, not only in 
their domestic comforts and in their moral trainings, but also in their 
reputation, which is sul)jected to great scandal in consequence of the 
institution of slavery. Their name has become a reproach (in which 



28 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

ours, with quite as much justice, is beginning to share); their princi; 
pies of hberty held up to scorn ; their morals represented as impure 
their religion impeached, and their clergy suspected of maintaining 
infidel principles ; Avhile the entire Church of the United States, from 
its apparent hostility to abolition, is openly avowed to be the " bul- 
wark of slavery." These accusations do not come from an obscure 
corner, neither are tliey the invention of enemies in our own country. 
Whoever is conversant Avith the European press, will find it teeming 
with reproach of our national disgrace. Our clergymen, who should 
be every where representatives of our moral worth, are put to shame, 
in their visits abroad. 

Prejudices are not regulated by a knowledge of facts ; and the fol- 
lowing curious sample of the notions, even of wise and good men, 
concerning the state of our religion and morality, will show us that 
we have become, not only subjects of intense blame, but of strong 
caricature. It is extracted from a paper written by that great and 
good man, Thomas Clarkson, shortly before liis death, in October 
last. After dwelling, at some length, on the infidelity of slnveholding, 
and of the tendency of the American clergy to unbelief, IMr, Clark- 
son says, " Two or three years ago there were thousands, and even 
many in the more virtuous Northern States, who would not pay their 
legal public debts. How much, in these people, must the moral 
sense have been lowered and debased ; not in individuals only, but in 
multitudes, Avho could brave the shame of denying their own legal 
obligations. All Europe came to the knowledge of these transac- 
tions, and reprobated them in almost all the coffee-houses on the Con- 
tinent ; so that no people ever stood so low among the civilized na- 
tions of the earth ; and I believe that if slavery should continue a few 
years longer, and its genuine offspring, infidelity, accompany it, as it 
has hitherto invariably done, I doubt whether the American people 
will not be put down in our maps as a semi-barbarian people ! Nei- 
ther can the evil be corrected, but by the total abolition of slavery. 
The little religion which there is in America is good, but perliaps no 
less than one-third of the clergy have caught the contagion of the pro- 
slavery mania, and ore not abolitionists! Again, the laity of Ame- 
rica, contrary to the Scriptures, have taken upon themselves a domi- 
neering despotism over tlie clergy, so as to have them in complete 
subjection. Hence the clergy must be silent, if their masters are the 
friends of slavery." 

I see no serious ground for the charge of infidelity preferred against 
the clergy of the United States, since infidehty is not tlie fruit of a 
sentiment, but the sentiment itself. It is therefore but due to them. 
to say, that as far as we can judge from their preaching and conver- 
sation, they are orthodox in belief, however heterodox they may be 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 29 

in the observance of some of the precepts of the gospel. But in the 
last clause of the above extract there is some truth. 

In the Southern States, the institution of slavery imposes silence 
on the ministers of religion, in regard to its own sinfulness; their si- 
tuation is therefore rendered peculiarly trying ; for they are not the 
people to rej )ice in the weals, and stand aloof from the woes of thost 
who give them their daily bread. They view slavery in its true 
light, as an institution incompatible with the spirit of the gospel, and 
contrary to the rights of man ; but they are aware of the difficulties, 
which I have attempted to set forth, in the way of emancipation ; 
and for them to preach abolition to the slaveholder, would be but to 
say, " Do that which you cannot do!" Yet they are sadly remiss 
in their duty, as humble followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, in 
whom should be found neither loftiness nor scorn. Would they but 
unite in their ministerial capacities, and attempt to bring the slave- 
holders to a willingness to apply to the general Government for aid, 
something might be done ; and this, as teachers of righteousness and 
justice, it is their duty to do. Pride makes men unwilling to ask 
favors ; but for the South to bring her case before the Congress of 
the United States, would not be asking a favor, but claiming a privi- 
lege ; or, in other words, demanding a right, since the resources of 
the Governrnt-nt belong as much to them as to the North; and the 
existence of the evil, which they find it necessary to remove, not 
being a measure of their own adoption, but of England first, and re- 
tained at the beck of the entire American Union. It is therefore 
but right that the entire Union should lay their forces against it, and 
exclude it forever from out of the land. 

I am grieved to acknowle.'ge that there are some Southern cler- 
gymen, who, for reasons unworthy of their calling, defend the insti- 
tution of slavrry ; and not having a due sense of the holiness of the 
sacred Scriptures, endeavour to prove therefrom that slavery is of di- 
vine origin, and r'ght in the sight of God. These have brought upon 
our clergy generally, the ('iscountenance of the entire church abroad. 
The world is not enough discriminating. It is wrong to condemn a 
whole class of men, because a k\v of their number bring odium on 
the cause, which it is the desire of the main body to cherish in its 
purity. 

Have none of the slaveholding clergy hearts? Do their bowels 
of compassion never yearn towards their slaves ? Do they never 
indulge in reflections like these ? — " Would to Heaven that our 
brethren of the North could look in upon us as we are; their hearts 
might then be opened to preach cha^it}', and instead of meditating 
our exclusion from their pulpits and their communion, they might 
set their influence at worlc in such a manner as to bring our cause 
3* 



30 A PLEA. FOR THE SOUTH. 

before the General Government, in which, alone, lies the remedy for 
the evils of slavery. How would our hearts rise in the extatic spirit 
of freedom ! The burning sentiments of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence were icicles compared to the language of our redeemed 
consciences. We are willing to make whatever sacrifice we are 
able, but all that we alone can do, would be but to bring heavier 
distresses upon ourselves and upon our slaves. We have been so 
long taunted with slaveholding, by the Nor h, that we cannot lay 
open our minds to them; but would they come forward as friends, 
as brothers, as countrymen, and say, ' Your cause is that of our com- 
mon country. — Let us come to the rescue!' — Oh! what. a response 
would there be from the one heart of the South." 

The above remarks, in quotation, were made to me, in Georgia, 
by a clergyman of advanced age, a Doctor of Divinity, and a most 
devout man. He owned some slaves who came by inheritance and 
natural increase. It was his earnest desire to make them free, but 
he had not the means of making the provision for them, which the 
laws required. He gave them a comfortable home, inflicted no pu- 
nishment, and admonished them with kindness. His lenity had the 
usual effect ; it filled them with an unconquerable desire for that free- 
dom which owns no vassalage to man. It was in vain that he repre- 
sented to them his inability to remove them from the State; and of 
the danger of their being apprehended and sold as vagrants to others 
less indulgent than himself; they became sullen, neglectful of the 
comforts of their aged master and mistress ; and were often guilty of 
the rudest insolence. 

One Sabbath, I was invited by this good clergyman to dine at his 
house. His wife was confined at home by indisposition and infirmi- 
ties ; but it seemed she had given orders for a comfortable dinner. 
The hour had passed, and our host rang the bell : — at last a servant 
appeared. "Is the dinner ready?" "Yes, massa, — did'nt know 
' you's gwine to bring folks." The countenance of the mistress fell. 
,• " I have a good appetite, to-day," said she, " send me a part of what- 
"* ever you may find on the table." I followed to the dining-room, 
.and lo! before us were some stale potatoes and a watermelon. A 
"look of disappointment was at first visible in that exemplary man, but 
his manner immediately softened, and he craved a blessing, not only 
^on the humble viands, but on "those unfortunate children of our 
""/great common Parent, who were suhjected lo our auihority, and 
whose eternal wejflire would be demanrled at our hands." 

I have since heard that same pure-minded and truly Christian dis- 
ciple denounced as a "slaveholding hypocrite." 

Again I repeat the mournful triuh, ihat slaveholding of necessity, 
involves cruelty and oppression. No kindness will he received as 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. '91 

an equivalent for freedom ; and these slaveholders, in ihc maintain- 
ance of an institution, which came by inheritance, and seen)s to be 
entailed hke hereditary madness, are forced to aggravate the* crime 
of depriving men of their liberty, by committing outrages, against 
which the vengeance of Heaven cannot long be stayed. 

And what are the immediate consequences on the minds of the 
oppressors .' — Only such as might be expected; they become harden- 
ed without malgni y, brutal from necessity, and deaf to the sugges- 
tions of mercy, from Avarice. 

The Planter does not allow himself to contemplate the sufferings 
of his slaves, his better nature might prevail. Interest bids him turn 
aside, and blunts the sting of his conscience, which M'ould otherwise 
pierce his inmost soul. He looks on his fields of woe, where wretch- 
ed human beings bend over their toil, tluir backs, alike, exposed to 
the scorching sun, and to the scorpion lash of the hireling tormentor; 
and when the generous spirit, which seems to reside in the heart of 
the Southerner, rises in behalf of sufrc?ring humanity, it is dashed back 
by the Demon of gain, which stands at the portal ; and the unfortun- 
ate abettor of an institution repugnant to every principle of Justice 
and Mercy, turns upon his heel, and looses, as he flies from his fields 
of woe, the sense of his injustice in calculations of the avails from 
the labors and the sufferings at his command. He flies from his fields 
of woe I to the haunts of political strife, and warms his brain with 
zeal for his country's welfare, — that country which is consigning 
himself and his posterity to a retribution, which true wisdom should 
deprecate and turn aside, by doing justice to the injured and appeas- 
j,ing the revengeful. 

Lest it should be suspected that this work is intended as an apolo- 
gy for Si'aveholdtriff, it is necessary to reiterat^' the fact that we can- 
not separate the interests of the two classes, the slaveholders and the 
slaves ; and that all attempts to injure and to annoy the former, but 
make the condition of the latter more hopelessly painful. We can- 
not abolish slavery but by friendly co-operation with the slaveholders, 
whom we must sustain — not in further practices of cruelty, but in 
making provision for the well-being of the slaves, and in providing 
for the safety and comfort of their own families : — otherwise, eman- 
cipation can never be accomplished without the shedding of blood. 
Therefore, while I would desire to relieve the oppressed, I cannot 
forget the claims of those, Avho, under sanction of our General 
Government, and for the apparent benefit of these United States, 
becaate their oppressors. — Let all pity the slave, for his woes are 
past finding out ! but let none envy or be unjust to the master, for 
often, while the bruised flesh is wrapped in peaceful slumber, its 
owner wakes and groans with contending cares and forebodings of 



32 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

coming evil. — Let all pity the slave, and let all unite in an effort for 
his liberation, not in words alone, but Avith offerings of that lucre a 
part of which was obtained at the expense of his blood and tears ; 
for not until the whole country shall be Avilling to say, We have 
erred, will he be liberated ; and not until then will the cup of inr 
iquity be removed from the lips of the still more unfortunate dispo- 
ser of his freedom and happiness : — not that we must instruct the 
slaveholder in /lis dttty, he knows it well, and we know ours ; we 
know that on our part a preliminary step must be taken. — The power 
to save lies in the Northern arm. — Shall we hesitate, O! my friends? 



In a conversation which I had with an eminent Southern Lawyer, 
in 1842, he cursed the federal compact. " Had our fathers," said 
he, *' believed that we were still to be a slaveholding people, they 
would have maintained their allegiance to the mother country. But 
in the hope of becoming a just as well as a free people, they took part 
in the quarrel of the North and assisted to gain for that portion of 
the Union an Independence which has raised it to the very achme of 
prosperity : — but the revolution left us of the South in a worse slate 
than it found us ; for while it brought on the necessity of continuing 
the slave trade, it deprived us of the aid of blessed Old England, 
who would have relieved us of the burden of slavery, when she 
thought fit to condemn if. Were we, at this moment, subjects of the 
British Crown, we should be wiping out the stains of slavery, — not 
at the bidding of the unauthorized people, but with the aid of the 
British Government ; and that, too, in the full assurance that 
our characters were not suffering from our connexion with an insti- 
tution, founded before we were born, and over the existence of which 
we have never had control. But the free sections of our country, 
with which it is our misfortune to be connected, after draining us of 
the profits arising from slave labor, command us to " abolish slavery!" 
without affording us the means, from our common resources, so to do; 
and without even looking into our domestic concerns but to find 
cause of reproach. — And our hatred of the North is insurmountable !'* 
With that he brought his hand, with such force, down upon a centre 
table, that books, boxes, scent-bottles and fans flew up in the wildest 
confusion. 

After he had become more calm, I said to him, " Surely, your 
hatred of the North would melt into kindlier feelings, were the 
Cause removed.'' He had turned his face from me, in the moment 
of his excitement, and now stood with his head erect and his hands 
clenched behind his back, but he moved partly round, and without 



A PLEA FOR The sovth. 



83 



looking: at me, tapped me lovinely on the shoulder, and not another 
word M-as said on the sulyect. — But whose cheek would not, like 
mine, have felt the unbidden ttar? 



In the Free States the mercantile interests are paramount to all 
others, and mav be said to dispense benefits to every class of citizens 
with the exception of the lesser farmers, yet controling the political 
intluence which these possess in common Avith other free men; so that 
they, the merchants, are not only able to command the concurrence 
of the learned professions, but to mould the will of honest yoemanry. 
This amount of power, far from being; cla med on their part, has been 
conceeded to them by a public Avhom they have raised to a high state 
of opulence, respectability and comfort. 

The eager pursuit of wealth, which is but a trait in the character 
of our mercantile men, is, by too many, supposed to condense all 
their pecuniary sympathies into the one grand passion, — self emolu- 
ment. But who can survey the magnificent structures; the insti- 
tutions of learning, the provisions for the poor, and the liberal support 
of the gospel throughout the Northern and Middle States, and then 
say, there is no character in all this! Through the liberality of 
the merchant and the manufacturer, Enterprise is enabled to carry 
on its vast operations, Learning to dispense honors, and Charity to 
sustain the needy. — Are they then culpable because they accumulate 
wealth in order to be generous. 

Those persons, who are immersed in business, or who have retired 
upon a competence, seldom send their sympathies abroad in search 
of objects : there being others, whose vocation it is to collect such 
information as has a bearing upon any important grievance, and pre- 
sent it to the minds of such as have the power, either through their 
recommendation, their importunities or their wealth, to put the wheel 
of reform in motion. But when the suggestions for improvement are 
liable to be received with that kind of uneasiness, Avhich a man feels 
in the prospect of losing an important resource for gain, and of be- 
ing called u|on for a disbursement to defray the expense ol depri- 
ving himself of furthpr benefit from that source, it requires a consid- 
erable degree of Ibrtitude for those who eat bread from his bounty to 
make an appeal, even in behalf of su tiering humanit}-, or of national 
virtue. But the duties connected with Christianity forbid the scru- 
ples of self-interest when a eood work is to be done. 

It is known that the abolition of slavery is not generally opposed 
by our men of wealth, nor by those of political standing and in- 
fluence; but their lips are sealed by the magnitude of the work, which,, 
with the exception of battle and slaughter, M'ould be quite as arduous 



34 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

as was the struggle for the National Independence. But the achieve- 
ment would be far more glorious, being a consummation of the design, 
with which the revolution was begun ; and giving us a right to the 
title of Free, which is now only ours by assumption. 

The first step towards the woi'k of emancipation is free discussion, 
on the means to be employed. It is the necessity of using means, 
that has chained the tongues of those who should have been the first 
to speak, whose calling it is to instruct in every good word and work; 
against whose appeals the avenues to the heart are never closed ; 
for the reason that they do not usually give instruction in the oiFen- 
sive tone of command ;. but leave it to men to decide, in their own 
minds, on the fitness of an untried experiment, even where Human- 
ity points the way. 

The Aboliiionists are said to have erred in presenting a hostile 
front to the public, thereby bringing indignation, from certain high 
places, against the cause, and more particularly against themselves. 

However violent the Abolitionists may now be, they did not be- 
gin in an adverse manner. They sat about a good work, but with 
views of human sympathy too exalted to bear the test of application. 
They met with rebulfs and scorn from the profane, who hated them 
for their benevolent designs, and they looked toward the church for 
(iountenance and support. But the clergy from whom the cause 
would naturally have been expected to derive important aid, and 
who could have conducted it in a manner to conciliate the North 
without agravating and wounding the South, believing themselves 
to be hemmed in by restrictions, which, previous to the abolition 
movement, had made it dangerous to their interests to condemn 
popular sins, became timid in matters of reform generally, and es- 
pecially where their most able supporters were either among the 
offenders, or liable, from any cause, whatever, to countenance their 
errors: and their silence on the subject of some secular enormities, 
made legal because of their tendency to make rich, was regarded 
as divine permission to continue in certain iniquitous practices, not 
the least heinous of which was that of manufacturing and vending 
cheap spirituous liquors, which held out an inducement to the poor 
to become drunkards from the very ficility of obtaining the means 
to make them so; and it was calculated that the heads of about one 
thousand families, became beastly inebriates from the eflusions of 
each grand distillery in the United States: or, in other words one 
man became rich by the process of destroying a thousand others, 
both body and soul. The clergy did indeed condemn drunkenness 
from their pulpits, while they felt themselves compelled to receive 
into their communion them that furnished the enticement. Some 
few of their number dared openly to rebuke the wealthy rumseller, 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. SS 

and the consequence was that they were discarded forthwith. This 
matter will not appear extraneous, when it is remembered that the 
effort at "Temperance Reform" immediately preceded that for the 
abolition of slavery ; and that it was during the first struggle that 
the clergy learned to avoid popular disscussions, and to be silent on 
subjects of moral reform. Thus, self-prohibited, they confined 
their preaching, more than ever, to their creeds, and their exhorta- 
tions to the minor precepts of the gospel, only alluding to such as 
were of more extended signification as to things beyond the practi- 
cal particijiation of their hearers. 

The clergy of the Northern and Middle States, although the best 
su])portcd, are the least independent of any in Christendom, The 
early settlers, jealous of controul, required of their pastors a strict 
conformity to such creeds as they, their dictators, should appoint, 
and to such morals, and such only, as their standard allowed. It 
cannot be supposed that the Pilgrim Fathers sat under the ministra- 
tions of the gospel for the purpose of being doctrinated ; — far from it, 
they doctrinated their preachers. 

Fortunately the inflexible orthodoxy of our fathers imparted sta- 
bility to the character of the American priesthood, while their re- 
quirements of undeviating sobriety and chastity of manners left an 
impression, which time has not effaced. And be it remembered, to 
the everlasting honor of the early settlers of New England, that they 
were too severe upon themselves to make it necessary for tliem to 
claim indulgence from their spiritual guides on the score of immor- 
ality. It is much to be regretted that their high-toned moral tem- 
perament did not come doAvn to the present generation along with 
the conservative habits, which form so distinguishing a trait in the 
clerical character. 

It is impossible to take a thorough view of the present aspect of 
the anti-s:avery enterprise, without observing, with keen interest, 
the position of the clergy, who, restrained from any direct participa- 
tion in political affairs, have, nevertheless, a positive influence on all 
our domestic relations. But the social eminence, to which edu- 
cation and liberal salaries have raised them, especially in our at- 
lantic cities, lias filled them with aristocratic notions, so that they have 
become effeminate and dainty ; and find greater consolations in 
keeping themselves as patterns of propriety, than co^Ud they in 
coming out as pioneers of reform. Yet the Church is dear to us ; 
and oiu- confidence in the clergy is not to be shaken, without proof 
oC their entire unfitness for their oflice. — They are but men. Let u.s 
speak of their virtues first, and then pass our censure upon their 
short-comings. There is not on earth a priesthood of morals so un- 
exceptionable, of conversation and deportment so pure, of pastoral 



36 A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

sympathies so continual. They are free in their gifts of charity, 
and impress on their congregations the duty of constant almsgiving. 
In the mental improvement of the young they take unbounded in- 
terest ; and society is largely indebted to their exertions for the pro- 
gress already made in our literary institutions. In these things, and 
in more, their examples s^^ine with a living light. But in the cause 
of the slaves and of the free colored people of our country, their ne- 
glect of a duty, so apparent to all the world, shows how hard it is 
for men, who daily receive the homage of the elite, and command 
the awe of the vulgar, to maintain a true gospel, simplicity of mind 
and manner, and an impartial regard for men of all conditions, so 
that their course may not be marked by a pride and exclusiveness, 
for which their observance of religious rites, and even their kindest 
charities cannot atone. 

Slavery having been an institution, for a long time approved 
throughout the country, and never repudiated as a national system, 
it is not at all marvelous that an otherwise conservative clergy should 
not be the first to make an attack upon it, but when the cause of a 
final emancipation began to be agitated in the UnFfefi States the 
public mind had been, in some degree prepared, by its own exclu- 
sion of slavery, for the event ; and the ministers of that gospel, 
which preaches freedom to the captive, could have entered that field 
of labor with as little difficulty as they found in establishing the 
missionary enterprise, or any other for the benefit of the needy or 
the instruction of the unenlightened ; and by this means would have 
rendered the cause of religion in the South a more essential service 
than thev can now do by a justification of slavery in the persons of 
the Southern priesthood. Unfortunately, they did not so consider it, 
but went so far info the extreme ofinditFerence for the colored man's 
rights as to render it doubtlul whether they believed that he did, 
indeed, pcssess all the attributes of humanity. Had their disregard 
of their sable brethren been confined to silence in the cause of 
emancipation, it could not have escaped the popular censure : but 
when the fact became known that the well-qualified colored student 
was not allowed to enter their seminaries of learning; nor the pious 
clergyman, who had received regular ordination, a seat in their con- 
ventions, their general bearing towards the free colored people be- 
came a matter of scrutiny, and the result was such as to bring 
upon ihem a blaze of wrath from the abolitionists; to which, 
unhappily, the retort, " fanatic " and " infidel "* was returned, the 

♦The infilelity of Iha abolitionists tppear to be nothing more than a (loiil)t of the inf^Ilj. 
Mlity of the American Church. There arc infidels in the country, who endeavor to make 
comnion cau«e with them ; but as far as I have been able to discern, the abolitionists, 
proper, are acuatod by truly evangelical motives. If loine of them are ultra in their notion* 
of religious rites and ceremonies, they stand on the same ground with the Q.ualcersor Friend*. 



A PLEA FOR THK SOUTH. 37 

clergy conceding so far as to avow anti-slavery principles, yet 
maintaining a proslavery attitude, — which doubtless was meant as a 
manifestation of their sympathy with their ministerial brethern of 
the South, rather than as fellowship witl\ the unchristian institutiori 
of slavery itself. 

Anti-slavery has now become a popular principle ; there is no 
resisting against it. The reaction in favor of the bondman is be- 
coming so strong, that there is danger o^ others than slaveholders 
falling beneath its overwhelming force. But it does not follow that 
the emancipation of the slave will be the result of any violent mea- 
sures, for such measures would rather tend to exterminate than to 
make him free. Our peculiar situation in having the enemy even at 
our own doors, and not on some '■'■lone isle of the ocean" makes it 
doubly necessary that harmony should prevail in measures providing 
for the safety of the Republic. There is now a time for all, who 
possess a peace-making influence to engage in a work, which is 
already in the full tide of operation, and must go on ; but which needs 
the spirit of unamimity and forbearance, to prevent those unhappy 
collisions, which sometimes accompany the most salutary reforms. 
People are becoming willing listeners to arguments in favor of the 
bondman. They are ready to be persuaded that they have some- 
thing to do for his liberation ; but those who have the subject most 
at heart, differ in their views of expediency, and cannot be reconciled 
to each other without that kind of mediation which brings strength 
to the cause and points ont an unerring course to the attainment of 
the object. In the cause of emancipation a general interest must b« 
awakened and the general views harmonized ; for without concord 
there can be no profitable deliberation : and who should be so well 
qualified to stir up a spirit of brotherly love as the ministers of the 
gospel ? They preach peace with a good effect, for they draw 
their erring flocks into their confidence, and while they instruct 
they can also unite them. 



To the philanthropic zeal and self-sacrificing perseverance of the 
abolitionists is due, not only the general interest which is being man- 
ifested in the cause ofemancipation, but also the continued tranquility 
of theslave portion of the country. The Southern slaves learned from 
the event of the American Revolution that Libertv was an " in- 
alienable RIGHT ;" they also learned, from the tregedy of St, Domingo 
that there was a way of obtaining that right; but being a timid 
people, and never ferocious, except from despair, they have, from 
time to time, listened to intimations of freedom, through the eflbrts 
of the Northern Abolitionists. This, and this alone, has quieted 



38 A FLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

their minds, and cheered them on in the hope of a bloodless eman- 
cipation* 

1 have conversed with slave preachers, who have candidly owned 
to mc, ihut they found no means so effectual in reconciling the slaves 
to a longer endurance of tlpir sufferings, as the holding out to them 
the certainty of emancipation by the General Government through 
the iulluence of the abolitionists. I have conversed with some of the 
most ignorant and degraded of their class, and found them impressed 
with the same notion, which I always endeavored to strengthen ; and 
my assurances never failed to be received with a degree of thankful- 
ness, which made it safe for me to recommend to them obedience to 
their masters, and patience under their trials. But were the hopes 
of a final liberation to be destroyed — and I asked the question once, 
they would become demons instead of men. When I asked the 
slave what he would do, were there no hope of freedom left? he 
reared up before me in a manner that made me close my eyes, as 
from a terrible apparition. 

The spirit of vengeance manifested by the slaveholders toward the 
abolitionists, w'ould appear both unjust and injudicious were it not 
that the latter are pursuing their measures of creating universal ex- 
citement against slavery, without touching upon the expediency of 
using any measure for its removal, except that of moral suasion, 
or coercion ; the first of which is viewed by the South as an insult, 
the second as a crime. I do verily believe that had a feasible way 
of emancipation been introduced at an early period of the anti-slavery 
movement, it would, 'ere this day, have become a matter of legisla- 
tive consideration, attended, perhaps, with a saving, on the part of 
Government, sufficient to have made a considerable progress in the 
work. 

Though a constant reader of the Abolition Journals, I have very 
little personal acquaintance with those who conduct them j and 
never had conversation on the subject with but one, a prominent 
leader in the cause. I suggested to him the necessity of great pe- 
cuniary sacrifice to the country. His reply, in substance, was, 
" That it must come to this, at last ; but that such a suggestion, 
until the public mind was sufficiently prepared to meet it, would act 
as a barrier to all further efforts in the cause, and bring upon the 
abolitionists the charge of an attempt to render the North more sub- 
servient to the interests of the South than it now is." Such might 
be the first impulsive feeling, and the sooner it is past, the sooner 
will REASON enter the lists against slavery. The abolitionists have 
doubtless acted from the best of motives; yet their course may have 
been marked by an erring judgment ; — and they may, indeed, as a 
body, be unwilling that any pecuniary assistance should be rendered 



A PLBA FOR THE SOUTH. " 39 

to the slaveholding States in fartheranco of the grand consummation, 
to which every friend ofthe human species must look forward with 
a desire that would hardly count the cost. 

The great amount of talent and good sense to he found in the 
abolition ranks should lead us to suppose that they are aware of all 
that is necessary to be done ; and if their zeal is acuated hj'' pity for 
the slave (and there is no reason why wc should think oiherwise,) 
they will oppose no reasonable sacrifice for his liberation. They 
will be willing to forego the claims of justice (which demands that a 
compensation should be made by the master to the slave for past 
services,) and assist the former in making him the only reparation 
now in his power, — that of making him a free man. Since the past 
cannot be recalled, it will be merciful to relieve him for the future, 
and if this can only be done by relieving the ownfir, who that truly 
feels for his unhappy condition would not be willing so to do? Does 
any one dissent? — then he is an enemy to the slaveholder, but A'ot a 
friend to the slave; and his pretensions to philanthropy should, at 
once, be discountenanced. 

My Southern friends will doubtless imagine that in this brief 
stricture on abolitionism, 1 should have given it a word of condemna- 
tion concerning the practice of taking away their slaves by stealth, 
and also for secreting and protecting fugitives from '■'■ service or la- 
bor,^'' in violation of a provision of the Constitution in favor of "^Ac 
party to tohom svch service or labor may be duc.^'' My sense of 
the duty I owe to God and to my fellow-ereaturcs, leads me rather 
to condemn an unjust law, than a humane practice in violation 
thereof; and I must confess that I do not think it sinful to entice 
away any portion of the human family from the house of bondage 
and death ; yet in all my acquaintance with the slaves, I have en- 
deavored to dissuade them from attempts to escape ; knowing the ter- 
rible punishment that awaits them, when unfortunately they are re- 
taken, and from seeing the additional severity practised upon those 
who never made the like attempt. But should a flying fugitive ask 
my protection, I would defend him to the last extremity. So terrible 
is Southern slavery in its ordinary aspect, that I would hold my life 
cheap, compared with the guilt of any voluntary participation in its 
support. But should I, knowing as I do the consequences, carry or 
send back to that land of oppression, the poor trembling creature 
who sought my aid ; or did I point out to his pursuers the place 
where the panting, shrinking thing had hoped fo^ concealment, I 
should never more dare to raise a prayer to God, — never more look 
Heaven in the face. Of all other sins T might repent and be for- 
given, but of this I could not repent, for the commission of the deed 



40 A PLEA TOR THE COCTH. 

would be proof that I had not capacity for grace sufficient to begiq 
the work of repentance, 



The entire control which the Southern confederacy has obtained 
over the General Government, certainly gives some cause of alarm j 
especially now that it has involved us in a war with an unoffending 
sister republic. I find it difficult to determine whether this aggres- 
sion on Mexico is popular or otherwise in the Free States, since 
those who are foremost to condemn the policy which dictated it, are 
nothing loath to aid in its prosecution; and to recommend a cam? 
paign in Mexico as a test of true patriotism ; while the nninds of the 
victims, enlisting for the 'service,' are bewildered with visions from 
the inner temples of the Mexican churches; and while huddled in 
their barracks, their flesh ripening for the miasma and the vulture, 
golden virgins, silver apostles, and jewelled saints, are prancing 
through their midnight dreams. 

The South boast that they have one " grand point of union," viz, 
Slavery. Is it possible that the North are rallying round the same 
standard? If so, their labour will be in vain, for slavery is becom- 
ing the ignus fatuus of the North, as it has long been the incubus 
of the South. Is this war carried into Mexico for the sole purpose 
of extending the area of slavery? — I wish not I 

For many years the Southern States have been tormented with 
the desire of an armed force in the vicinity of New Orleans, a spot 
so full of the elements of discord as to render precaution necessary 
for the protection of a portion of the inhabitants. It is also a most 
convenient place of rendezvous, on account of the facility with 
which aid, when required, can be sent from thence into every dis- 
trict of slavery. The desire is now gratified. If Mexico should 
happen to be "annexed," no harm will be done; some force will be* 
required to reconcile her to ouryree institutions. But if she should 
sue for peace, it must be granted on such terms as will insure thencr 
cessity of keeping troops in readiness to protect Texas from a fearr 
ful combination of the treacherous Mexicans, the revengeful Negroes, 
and the unsubdued Indians. 

A few years ago a suggestion was . made of the expediency of 
erecting Ibrts and a line of iron steamboats from Pittsburg to New 
Orleans, in order to facilitate the moverpents required by the last 
clause of Section IV, Article IV. of the Constitution. It was little 
thought when that proposition was so decidedly spurned, that a more 
efficient force would so soon congregate within hailing distance of 
New Orleans. 

If our country is desirous of practising economy, and of avoiding 



A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 41 

An unnecessary waste of human life, it will, at once, take measures 
for the abolition of slavery. The millions that have already been 
spent (and they are but a tithe to that which is to follow,) in support 
of the institution, should have been used for emancipation purposes. 
But the opportunities that are past, are gone, and reproach is use- 
less. There is still a way to correct the evil, and the sooner the 
work begins, the less will be the sacrifice required for its consumma- 
tion. In the present crisis, the pro-slavery spirit, already crest- 
fallen, would yield to the shock of a demand upon the Government 
for the extirpation of slavery. A remedy proposed for the evil 
would be a relief to the public mind, which is now a prey to a fe- 
verish and unhealthy excitement. I have, of late, conversed with 
men of influence and sound judgment, among whom are some of our 
wealthiest merchants, men to whom the abolition movements have 
ever been obnoxious, yet they each, and every one expressed a wil- 
lingness, and un ardent desire for a general emancipation, let the 
cost be never so great. Our statesmen are anti-slavery from prin- 
ciple, although their inaction in the cause of emancipation has been 
the cause of unbounded censure, under which it has been gratifying 
to notice that they have preserved the same dignified and courteous 
demeanor that has marked their course when reviled and contemned 
by the slaveholders themselves; and the good effect of their example 
is now apparent in the softened tone of the respectable journals to- 
wards the abolitionists. 

The current which has set in from the North, stimulated by hu- 
manity, national pride, and the fearful aspect of our Governmental 
concerns, is becoming irresistible. But what does tho North intend 
to do? — create a civil war? I must confess I should have some 
fears, were it not that the precious relics of Mexico have stronger at- 
tractions for the war spirit, than have the cries and groans of two or 
three millions of slaves. 

But the delusion cannot last; and whatever may be the result of 
the struggle with Mexico, the time for the liberation or the extirpa- 
tion of the slaves is not far distant. The former can only be accom- 
plished by a more amicable intercourse between the Free and the 
Slave States ; while the latter, through the aid of the naval and mill- 
tary forces in the neighborhood, must inevitably follow a manful at- 
tempt at self-emancipation ; and thus add to our already oppressive 
load of guilt concerning them. What kind of Government is this, 
that makes no effort to heal the dissensions in its family of States, 
where one portion arrays itself against the other and bandies words 
that sting like an adder, as though there were no common head to 
settle the matter of difference; and where the accused, but scarcely 
fnoxB culpable party conceals its cares in its own bosom, as if it had 



ti A PLEA FOR THE SOUTH. 

nothing to expect from an appeal to that head? Verily, a household 
governed in this manner would be shunned by its neighbors. 

Will not the General Government of our beloved country remove 
the cause of our difficulties by giving liberty to the slaves, whose 
cries to Heaven for mercy are being answered by judgments on us, 
their oppressors? Will it not, at this time, when the nations of the 
earth are casting about for subjects of reform, will it not be foremost 
in reforming itself? But if a good name be of no value, then for 
the sake of suffering humanity, for the honoring of the religion we 
profess, and for the safety of the republic, which, with all its sins, we 
must cherish and sustain, let that be done which is just in the sight 
of God, and equitable at the bar of the human conscience. Let the 
North take the South by the hand, and say, together tec have sinned^ 
together let vs put away the iniquity, that we may hereafter 
have confidence in each other^s intentions, and an interest in each 
other^s welfare. Let the '* Union,''^ which binds us together, be no 
longer a tie of discord, but a bond of love and a motive of peace. 

When I contemplate our Congress engaged in devising means for 
the abolition of slavery. I feel bewildered under a sense of the many 
difficulties that must, unavoidably, present themselves. But that 
same Power that enabled our sires to throw off the yoke of a foreign 
country will assist us in breaking the chains, which have manacled 

and disgraced our guardian, Freedom, in this. Th^n will she 

rise in majestic splendor, unfurling a banner, waving with resplen- 
dent light, from the margin of the St.* John's to the banks of the 
Rio Grande. 



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